It's time again for our weekly Persecution Blogger Round-Up, and as usual we have some wonderful posts for this week. Special thanks to all of you who are participating and who continue to participate each week. We truly appreciate you!

UPDATE – On Monday, February 5, 2007, Liu Fenggang was released after serving three years in prison. The well known house church leader expressed appreciation for the help his family received while he was in prison.

Our friends at Mission Network News are reporting that a Baptist Church was seized by Fatah in Gaza. Read the full story. Please also pray for the following things as they have asked us all to pray.

It's been a few weeks since I have highlighted some of the prayer requests that VOM sends out every week, so today I wanted to do that again. The following prayer requests from VOM USA for this week. Please join me and the rest of the staff at VOM in praying for these precious people.

One of my favorite things is telling people about the persecuted church. It's really very interesting when I talk to people who are not Christians about the issue because they usually don't realize that religious people, (as they usually call them) are being killed for their religious belief system.

News Max is reporting that the Pope is going to address Chinese persecution of Catholics.

Sheraz Khurram Khan has penned an article asking Is Christian Persecution a Blessing in Disguise?

Pastor Florescu couldn’t bear to watch his son being beaten by the Communist officers. He had already been beaten himself, and he had not slept for two weeks for fear of being attacked by the starving rats the Communists had forced into his prison cell. The Romanian police wanted Florescu to give up other members of his underground church so that they, too, could be captured.

I read a news article that warned the government in Burma (Myanmar) is trying to abolish Christianity. The article reported that an internal government document laid the foundation for abolishing Christianity and that anyone caught evangelizing would be arrested. The striking thing about this article was the spirit of Christians living under these stringent conditions. They are strong, on fire for God and they continue to spread the gospel.